• arrow74@lemmy.zip
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    6 days ago

    Right so a privateer is still a private individual. A private individual sanctioned by the state to commit piracy on its behalf.

    When a state’s military forces seize a foreign vessel that is not an act of piracy it is an act of war

    • Deceptichum@quokk.auM
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      6 days ago

      Sure, but the original argument was that states could not engage in piracy, not that militaries couldn’t. The existence of privateers and their state mandates show that states can engage in it.

        • Deceptichum@quokk.auM
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          6 days ago

          Yes they allowed them too, they gave them a list of who they could attack, and at times armed them. Thats very much the state being involved in it. Outsourcing doesn’t absolve culpability.

          • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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            6 days ago

            I’m not saying they don’t retain liability or responsibility. We’re talking about the definition of piracy.

            • Deceptichum@quokk.auM
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              6 days ago

              the act of attacking ships in order to steal from them

              https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/piracy

              an act of robbery on the high seas also : an act resembling such robbery

              https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piracy

              Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy

              What about it?

              • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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                6 days ago

                The definition provided under international law is different. That seems more relevant to the conversation than the dictionary

                (a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_piracy_law

                • Deceptichum@quokk.auM
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                  6 days ago

                  That seems extremely irrelevant as we are not nation states, surely we should be operating under the human definition rather than a hyper specific legal framework we never interact with.

                  And of course states are going to say they can’t possibly be called out for it.

                  • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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                    6 days ago

                    Did you forget we were directly talking about the actions of a nation state?

                    This also isn’t a new concept the UN invented. It’s how it’s been since the “golden age of piracy”.

                    But yeah a legal definition is always going to be more specific than a general definition provided by a dictionary. Diogenese had some opinions on using these simplistic definitions to view the world